Notes from the Dvirhim Revolution

Timeline

≈100 AC: The sahuagin discover the first of the Great Ruins, ancient cities buried in the far corners of Ërdin that Boccob recycled from elder worlds, all with libraries’ worth of magic and technology to be learned. This knowledge will lead the sahuagin to advance their society rapidly and become the dominant power of the Mezzërdinian Sea.

≈200 AC: The Cobalti claim and name the eponymous Cobalt Sea, while their land-dwelling cousins the Zemulbalti rule its shores. Over the coming century they will be displaced by the sahuagin but the sea will continue to be known by its original name. The Cobalti will migrate to the Mezzërdinian and the Zemulbalti will migrate to Northern Komwë, where they will thrive and eventually establish the Dragon Empire.

≈300 AC: Qinjin Empire becomes the dominant land power in Ërdin following the invention and widespread implementation of the chariot; they engage in trade with the sahuagin mageocracy and their sea elf allies who now control both the Mezzërdinian and the Cobalt Sea. Cults of personality formed around the (primarily female) charioteers become an important aspect of Qinjin culture. Matrilineal hereditary surnames become common among Qinjin aristocracy.

≈600 AC: Bronze Age collapse. Early Iron Age leads to a rise in large numbers of running skirmishers, which in turn begins the end of military reliance on small numbers of well-armored “champion” units such as charioteers. The image of the chariot-mounted Qinjin matriarch begins to lose its power.

702-711 AC: Rust War. The sahuagin feel cheated by the new iron trade and rising costs of their preferred bronze tools; in protest, they close off trade routes and boycott landmade products. The Qinjins respond by overthrowing the sahuagin mageocracy with the aid of krakens and an internal betrayal by the sea elves, ruining aquatic civilization for the foreseeable future as undersea industry becomes practically impossible without infrastructure for the training of high-quality mages. The sea elves inherit most of the Mezzërdinian and all of the Cobalt Sea. Krakens acquire a taste for land-dweller products and land-dweller flesh, and begin experimenting with slave habitats in the western part of the Mezzërdinian and the Ocean of Novdin. These structures will give rise to the infamous Kraken Deep of the colonial period thousands of years in the future.

≈1000 AC: Qinjin has become an oppressive patriarchy.

1186 AC: The dragonid peoples of Komwë found the city of Dreykon, which will become the seat of the Dragon Empire.

1205 AC: Birth of Zoënicia into slavery in Qinjin. Zoënicia is alleged to be the eighth daughter of an eighth daughter, a status that was purported to predestine a woman for greatness according to Old Qinjin legend and Llothian mysticism.

1247 AC: Founding of the city of Tyne by Tynus and his elder sister Tynia.

1350 AC: The city of Dreykon establishes independence from the various trade states of the Mezzërdinian coasts that controlled it until this point and begins a long campaign which will eventually result in the conquest of most of Komwë. Historians generally consider this year to be the formal birth of the Dragon Empire.

1396 AC: Zoënicia flees Qinjin with her three daughters and a number of other elven slaves. She founds the nation of Svergurd and adopts the surname Sakiah to designate royalty, in accordance with the Old Qinjin traditions that she learned from her great-grandmother Füwaia.

1491 AC: Creation of the Tynan Senate.

1502 AC: Invention of the compass in Qinjin, though its potential to revolutionize navigation goes unrecognized and it is mainly used as a novelty of superstitious divination.

1736 AC: Tyne and the Dragon Empire go to war. The nagas defect to Tyne and invade the southeastern city of Kaitha with armies of conjured outsiders, primarily jann.

1782 AC: The descendants of the original summoned janni mercenaries of Kaitha switch their allegiance to the Dragon Empire in order to free themselves from naga control. The Dragon Empire invades Tynwë across the Strait of Wessorn using called celestials and tritons. There is chaos on all sides of the Mezzërdinian as they learn the dangers of military over-reliance on magically-compelled beings of demigodlike power.

1799 AC: Tyne has halted the advance of the celestial army into Tynwë. The naga lands on the Mezzërdinian’s east coast are a no-man’s land of mortal and outsider factions who have largely forgotten the greater war. With both land routes in stalemate the war becomes naval, which gives the Dragon Empire a decisive advantage; its navy has been superior to Tyne’s for decades.

1851 AC: Tyne’s pursuit of diplomatic relations with the aquatic peoples and sentient beings of the Mezzërdinian is an unparalleled success. It retakes the Strait of Wessorn with a disciplined army of kapoacinth, water nagas, locathah, sahuagin, and sea hags, with support from several of the greater Mezzërdinian krakens, then sweeps across Northern Komwë with a land invasion beginning at the Wessorn Peninsula.

1854 AC: Tyne’s forces breach the walls of Dreykon and sack it. All of the great cities of the Dragon Empire are put to the torch, their farmlands salted, and their resources stripped bare. The rakshasa emerge as victors of the wars to the east, and the naga lands are thereafter known as Qri Rakshas.

1857 AC: Zoënicia Sakiah dies in the middle of preparations to invade Qinjin. However, her daughter Yinsu ascends to the throne of Svergurd and proves more than capable of handling the war; Qinjin has been weakened by the perpetual raiding cycles of Gazad barbarians and falls easily.

1915 AC: Svergurdian alchemists recognize the navigational potential of Qinjin compasses and ask for funding from the Crown to produce many more for a series of great sea voyages. The secret of compasses will go largely unheard in the rest of the world for a long time, as Svergurd wishes to be the only nation with access to such technological innovations.

1954 AC: Founding of the city of Feiyning on Gazadhim‘s eastern coast, made possible by the Svergurdian navigational revolution. Surprisingly advanced social engineering ensures Feiyning’s continued loyalty to the Crown despite extreme geographic isolation (the notable exception being House Fukui).

1973 AC: Tyne formally proclaimed an Empire, its royal political leaders now Emperors rather than mere Kings.

2043 AC: Tyne invades the isle of Aglon, establishing the province of Dalia at its southern tip.

2051 AC: Sunesch Sakiah conquers western Qri Rakshas, including the Isthmus of Estorn. The rakshasa continue to hold central Qri Rakshas but their diminishing power allows rebel jann to seize the east and create the Jann Amirates.

2089 AC: The islands of Ki-Tan and Saimoi are discovered during Svergurd’s ongoing sea exploration by compass. It is settled by drow, dwarf, and human explorers from the city of Feiyning and its surrounding territories, who split its territories amongst themselves and massacre most of the indigenous humans and halflings. The highborn families declare themselves sovereign from Svergurd and appoint themselves as new royalty; however, they are soon preyed upon by the island’s vampires, who had long been held in check by the indigenous Ki-Tanese samurai and daimyo, but who are no longer inhibited by a functional civilization of experienced vampire hunters. Only the drow house of Fukui manages to survive and consolidate power over the island after vampires kill the others.

2205 AC: Lyndesine steals priceless illuminated manuscripts from the Great Library of Entiok with a clever con, using the spell Alter Self to appear as the pseudodragon familiar of a librarian controlled with the spell Suggestion. Emboldened by this success, Lyndesine will raid increasingly higher-profile targets within the Tynan Empire for the century to come.

2303 AC: Tynan soldiers discover Lyndesine’s hoard and set it ablaze. Lyndesine survives and is driven to new heights of violence.

2505 AC: Lyndesine migrates northeast into the Waldermark to escape the Tynans, prompting the Great Elven Migration Period.

2511 AC: Alaeryc I founds the state of Aexia as a holdfast to check the growing northern power of Svergurd. He has grown aware of Svergurd’s notorious skill at siege defense and fears that if the drow armies establish fortresses in the Siryolf mountain range they might never be driven out, and could raid the lowlands with impunity forever. Alaeryc adopts the patrilineal surname “Lewyldë” for himself and his heirs.

≈2600 AC: Duakiel violently unites most of the disparate wood elf tribes and proclaims himself their leader by right of conquest.

2618 AC: Wild elf nomads flee south from the armies of Aexia, Celenor, and the hordes of Duakiel. In the process they run over Tyne, sacking it for supplies and ships to Northern Komwë, exposing its military weakness in the wake of its struggles with Lyndesine.

2682 AC: Kazin Lewyldë I becomes king of Aexia and makes overtures to the sea elves in order to strengthen his naval power. In Jaborhim, the duchy of Medyova is created for the newly promoted Medvei Daniilvich, with its seat at the eponymous city.

2684 AC: Tyne sacked again by Duakiel, who seizes the city and the entire Cassilian Peninsula for his people; this effectively dissolves the remnants of the Tynan Empire. Perceiving the trend, Duakiel adopts a hereditary patrilineal surname and becomes King Duakiel Falorin I.

2686 AC: News of the fall of Tyne spreads through western Tynwë. House Tagovert declares the sovereignty of the new state of Aasimique from Tyne and from House Falorin, and assumes the throne in the stead of the Tynan Emperors.

2701 AC: Falorin’s new territory invaded by Celenor, with Aexian support. Selderic I slays Duakiel I and drives the Falorin successors out on the orders of Kazin Lewyldë I, who feared Duakiel’s skill more than Selderic’s ambition and thus offered Selderic all of Duakiel’s territory uncontested in exchange for Duakiel’s head.

2705 AC: Lyndesine migrates east into Jaborhim to rebuild her hoard, as the dwarf cities hold more wealth than the villages of the wild and wood elves of the Waldermark. Hearing the news of Lyndesine’s exodus, the Falorin successors return to the Waldermark and establish a new kingdom of wood elves. She razes many dwarf cities and incidentally kills Medvei Daniilvich, making Stanislav Medivich I the Grand Duke of Medyova.

2760 AC: Kazin I assassinates Selderic I and takes the Cassilian Peninsula after hearing of Selderic’s plans to invade Aexia.

2776 AC: Cassily partially retaken by Celenor under Selderic II. Cassily breaks up into human and elf city-states siding with Celenor, Aexia, the Falorins, or the Houses of Aasimique, based mostly on individual convenience.

2905: After her latest bout of razing cities, a pattern is identified in Lyndesine’s aggressive behavior since ≈2300 AC; she tends to attack ferociously for periods of a few months to a few years and then become dormant for about two centuries. Stanislav I takes note of this in the many guides that he pens to prepare future rulers for the chaos and the refugees that will surely follow these “bicentennial rampages”.

2951 AC: The dynasty of House Caudelaire begins in Aasimique.

2962 AC: Birth of the warlord who will come to be known as Chenglei Reik.

3105 AC: First documented use of Lyndesine’s War Tapestries during the bicentennial rampage which concluded with the destruction of the capital city of Jaborov.

3107 AC: In the wake of Lyndesine’s sack of Jaborov, Jaborhim has disintegrated into a collection of city-states, one of which is the Grand Duchy of Medyova. Stanislav welcomes the many refugees into his gates and renames the duchy Dvirhim in light of the new ethnic blend of dwarf races. He also abandons the old dwarvish patronymic system in favor of the rising popularity of hereditary patrilineal surnames, making Medivich a fixed house name for the royal family.

3115 AC: Tuscardine Republic formed after its people throw out the Falorin rulers of Tuscardium and install the Council of Lords and a commune in their place.

3133 AC: Princess Shima Fukui is born in Ki-Tan.

≈3150 AC: Contact between Chenglei Reik’s horde and the alchemists in the Qinjin province of Svergurd causes the properties of the compass to become widely known outside of Svergurd, beginning a global revolution in discovery of new sea routes.

3206 AC: After a century of conquest in Gazadhim, Chenglei Reik has unified all of the Gazad lands and been proclaimed ruler of all duergar of the Gazad bloodline, though he failed to take the city of Feiyning.

3208 AC: Rungai Reik is born. The dry compass is invented in Aglondale.

3217 AC: The lizardgirl who will one day be called Maria de los Corales is born in Komwë.

3223 AC: The Falorins invade the remnants of Jaborhim with great success. Only Dvirhim is able to withstand them.

3238 AC: The bugbear who will one day be called Samuel the Barren is born in Estorn.

3240 AC: Alexei Medivich I agrees to make Dvirhim a vassal state of Chenglei Reik’s empire in order to gain them as allies against the Falorin invaders, instead of fighting a war on two fronts. The Reik forces quickly drive the Falorins back to their forests in the southwest. Alexei proves his skill as a warrior to Chenglei in numerous decisive battles, and Chenglei is sufficiently impressed to leave Dvirhim mostly under Alexei’s semi-autonomous supervision.

3253 AC: Samuel manifests sorcerer powers and joins the adventuring party known as the Company of Strangers in order to thwart a plot by the ancient vampire Donovan Locke.

3254 AC: The Jann Amirates capture and subjugate the Gazad territories of Kelbazau and the Gray Cliffs; Rungai Reik leads an invasion of eastern Tynwë, along with his fellow Strangers, to take them back, conquering the Jann Amirates for the Gazad Empire in the process. Trapped by the Gazads to the east and the Drow to the west and the north, the rakshasa choose to ally with the Drow for protection before the Gazads can spread further.

3293 AC: Rungai moves from Qri Rakshas into Aexia, the Cobalt Sea, and Svergurd-controlled Qinjin on Chenglei’s orders, launching a bloody campaign and even killing the Hierophant of Corellon Larethian during a truce. This causes strife with his fellow Strangers, so he leaves the team.

3295 AC: Chenglei Reik declares Rungai Reik his heir as he dies at age 343, provoking great discontent across the Gazad Empire and forcing Rungai to leave the Gazad horde’s fronts in Tynwë in order to attend Chenglei’s funeral (and then to fight his father, his uncles, his brothers, and his cousins for control of the empire). The advance into Tynwë halts, but is not repelled. The War of the Gazad Succession begins.

3298 AC: With Princess Shima Fukui’s unexpected help, Rungai Reik emerges victorious from the War of the Gazad Succession, lays claim to the entire Gazad Empire, and strengthens his naval power. In return, Rungai assists Fukui in a coup against her older sister.

3304 AC: Rungai dies under mysterious circumstances in Komwë. The Gazad Empire collapses almost immediately, though at the time of Rungai’s death it was the largest empire by total surface area in the history of Ërdin.

3305 AC: Lyndesine’s bicentennial rampages destroy the remnants of the Gazad Empire. Dvirhim gives aid to Gazadhim in exchange for independence, effective upon the death of the current ruler Alexei I.

3307 AC: No sooner is eastern Qri Rakshas free of Gazad rule than it is reconquered by Svergurd. The kingdom of Yashoru in northern Komwë begins a steady rise to local dominance.

3317 AC: Maria and Sam discover the island of Lusitola and the Great Ruins within that contain the secrets of lichdom. They have a confrontation with Shima Fukui for the lich rituals, which ends with all three of them becoming liches, the original copy of the rituals being destroyed, and the better part of the territory of Lusitola being claimed by Aglondale.

3318 AC: Aasimique contracts the Kraken Deep to turn its ancient slave habitats into cash crop plantations, especially sugar beets, using magitech-maintained crop plot designs conceived by Aasimican agricultural scientists and engineers. The Ocean of Novdin is full of these habitats and the krakens are more than happy to oblige in exchange for the knowledge, the pay, and the vast supply of low-level mages on call.

3328 AC: A race begins between Aglondale and Aasimique to colonize territories in Komwë and Lusitola for cash crop plantation space, riding roughshod over all the civilizations in their way.

3440 AC: The Dourdons sanction slave trade with the Yashoru Empire and find an important market for slaves in southern Ki-Tan as Fukui seeks to make use of her tropical southern regions for growing coffee and sugarcane. A trade route develops over the course of the next few centuries and Aasimique becomes extremely wealthy as a result. Surplus slaves are put to work in Aasimique’s own sugar, spice, tea, coffee, tobacco, cotton, hemp, and poppy trades around the Mezzërdinian rim, Komwë, and Volushi, or used to supplement the demands of the Kraken Deep.

3501 AC: Stanislav Medivich II begins a push into Falorin territory to reclaim old Dwarvish lands and a simultaneous push into the Crabclaw Isthmus.

3505-3531 AC: Lyndesine begins a bicentennial rampage that puts all others to shame. It continues for over two decades with no signs of slowing down, until Stanislav II hires Maria and Sam to put a stop to it for good. Maria and Sam are able to drive Lyndesine back into dormancy but are not able to locate her lair. As payment they demand only that Stanislav II cease his ruthless expansionism.

3532 AC: Grand Canal of Estorn completed.

3539 AC: Lord Ragnar Perünov becomes a vampire.

3562 AC: The twin dynasties of the feuding houses of Moriko and Tumei begin in Svergurd.

3638 AC: Maria and Sam have a falling out over Aglondale’s increasingly brutal imperialism and how best to deal with it. Maria leaves the civilized world to explore the oceans, eventually coming across the uninhabited Reeflands, which she promptly inhabits and declares to be a haven for the oppressed.

3639 AC: Another Great Ruin is unearthed in the Reeflands, detailing the rituals involved in becoming a demilich. Shima Fukui and Maria immediately come into conflict over these rituals and Fukui is ultimately able to steal a copy of them. After some hesitation Maria decides to willingly share them with Sam. All three of them become demiliches by the end of the year.

3640 AC: Lord Ragnar Perünov and his wife and son have a final confrontation that ends with the latter two dead and the former forced to flee Dvirhim and be a fugitive for centuries. Ragnar becomes a warlord in Komwë.

3705 AC: It is readily apparent at the start of Lyndesine’s bicentennial rampage that she is now an epic caster, and that as in 3505 she has no intention of stopping until someone stops her. Andrei Medivich II decides not to delegate that responsibility to outsiders as Stanislav II did, and confronts Lyndesine directly with all the force he can muster. Lyndesine slew every single person in his retinue, but took grievous wounds in the process and ultimately died in battle with Andrei II himself when the emperor broke a Staff of Power and consumed them both in a vast arcane conflagration.

3799: The Elven Empire of Celenor, Aexia, and the Cobalt Sea separates into independent states, leaving its former protectorates (such as the fey nation of Färchaia) highly vulnerable. Svergurd immediately conquers Färchaia.

3811 AC: The Cassilian secret organization known as the Lamp-Lighters, or Lampionari, assassinates the Aasimican puppet king of a unified Cassily and declares the state a free republic.

3815 AC: Global economic depression and bitter feelings about imperialism/colonialism begin to foment disorder in colonies. Aasimique suffers a major loss on the island of Volushi in the Volushi Revolt. Aglondale begins emancipation of dwarf, elf, human, goblin, orc, and dragonid slaves in all its territories in an effort to start shifting to paid labor before the slave system collapses entirely.

3818 AC: Southern Lusitola declares independence from Aglondale.

3820 AC: War debt from fighting Southern Lusitola mounts until a second uprising begins in Aglondale itself.

3823 AC: City of Dalia seized by an angry mob composed primarily of women in the Womens’ Siege of Dalia. King Ernace Nalderick of Aglondale taken to the city outskirts and blown from a gun, Commonwealth established in its place with the governor of Northern Lusitola, Alistair Horwill as Lord Protector, establishing the House of Horwill. Blowing from a gun is used as a means of execution by the Commonwealth for many alleged enemies of the state, and the image of a victim affixed to the mouth of a cannon becomes a symbol of the violence during the revolution. Royalist troops stationed in Southern Lusitola under the command of General Thayal McNolton defect to Southern Lusitola rather than surrender to Horwill. Horwill makes an effort to bring Southern Lusitola back into the fold but they continue to rebel. After much consideration, Samuel the Barren joins the side of the rebels.

3825 AC: War of Lusitolan Independence ends when Horwill and Parliament vote not to continue the war, in light of Barren Sam’s formidable opposition.

3839 AC: Juénavert Sionarte comes to power in a bloodless coup in Aasimique, establishing a Legislative Directorate with himself as Director.

3841 AC: Andrei Medivich III grants citizenship to Dvirhimmish vampires, but requires them to be registered with a specialized department and does not pardon them for any crimes they were forced to commit in the process of protecting their identities.

3842 AC: Sionarte is crowned Emperor of Aasimique and founds the House of Sionarte, which survives into the present era.

3892 AC: Aislin is born.

3901 AC: Andrei Medivich III dies after a “golden reign” of 196 years, but was predeceased by his eldest son Andrei IV; the throne would have passed to his younger son Alexei, but the eldest son produced the five-year-old Fyodor I, who inherits instead. Alexei Medivich is named King Regent and will rule in Fyodor’s stead until he comes of age.

3908 AC: Houses Moriko and Tumei are both deposed by House Kensho. Kensho opens many new universities and revolutionizes education in Svergurd.

3909 AC: There is an assassination attempt on Fyodor I; Fyodor’s mother runs away with him, believing that his uncle Alexei was responsible. A search begins, but does not find them. Fyodor grows up isolated from his kingdom and from any education about practical governance for his entire childhood and adolescence.

3921 AC: The North Lusitolan city of Il Meso is proclaimed the official prime meridian for cartographers at an international meridian conference.

3929 AC: The Yashoru Empire of humanoids that has dominated the Wessorn Peninsula for over six hundred years is conquered by Aasimique in a series of negotiations during which the leaders are arrested without jurisdiction or provocation. Rebellions follow, but are crushed after Aasimique sets up permanent forts in former Yashoru cities. Aasimique takes over the direct slave trade in Komwë.

3932 AC: Empress Shima Fukui’s phylactery is stolen by a pair of Ethereal Filchers who miraculously bumbled their way past security. She responds by mobilizing all her ghosts and xill allies through the Ethereal Plane and successfully committing genocide against the entire species of Ethereal Filchers. The xill are not particularly subtle about this and wipe out some small villages in the process; war nearly breaks out over the atrocities, but Ki-Tan backs down and acquiesces to pay reparation fees once Aglondale and Dvirhim have both declared their opposition.

3936 AC: Fyodor I is 40 years old and thus of age to rule; his identity is proved by a distinctive port-wine birthmark on his face and a considerable amount of divination. Svergurd, perceiving this new impulsive regime change as a moment of opportunity, begins planning the invasion of Dvirhim in the first stage of the Dark War.

3941 AC: David Caravag is born. Svergurd invades eastern Dvirhim by going through Gazadhim. The Dark War begins.

3946 AC: The Battle of Rujèmont goes poorly for Svergurd, effectively driving the drow back into their homeland with one devastating loss.

3947 AC: Dark War ends. Svergurd, the Pass of Kelbazau and the Gray Cliffs are annexed by the newly-reunited Elf Kingdoms. Gazadhim is annexed by Dvirhim, and Qri Rakshas by Aglondale. Färchaia and Caurthos become technically-independent satellite states of the Elf Kingdoms.

3948 AC: Druid revolt in response to the rising industrial power in Dvirhim after the conclusion of the Dark War. Bogdan Volkova helps put the revolt down and also successfully lobbies to have druidic magic made illegal nationwide.

3950 AC: Patriation of Northern Lusitola, aided by hospitable relations with Aglondale following their support in the Dark War, especially on the Qri Rakshas front. Samuel the Barren signs an agreement to defend both Northern and Southern Lusitola in the event of an attack by sea, air, or dimensional magic, and not to interfere in the diplomatic relations of Northern and Southern Lusitola.

3964 AC: The half-orc who will come to be known as Fengard is born. The tiefling Kia Culac is born.

3977 AC: There is an unsuccessful rebellion against the Mediviches, which David Caravag takes part in.

3979 AC: Lord Ragnar Perünov visits the island of Caurthos and recruits some of his more memorable servants, including Hylonome the Broken and Thaygor Benetapos.

3984 AC: Lord Ragnar Perünov visits the village of the half-orc who will be known as Fengard and puts his not-entirely-insignificant powers of persuasion to the task of putting the half-orc * on a path to destiny.

3985 AC: David Caravag re-emerges with a plan for a new Dvirhimmish revolution.